Ideas and Inspirations

The European Parliament will be awarding the annual Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in December . Each year the prize is awarded to individuals or organizations that - like Sakharov - have distinguished themselves in the struggle for human rights. Using this opportunity, the United Kingdom Office of the European Parliament is setting up a network on the human rights aspects of trade and the work of the European Parliament in enhancing the protection of human rights.

The European Union is often discarded as unimportant and unnecessary by the young people of today. This attitude is one that Euroscola aims to change. Twelve girls from Stroud High School Sixth Form were selected to represent the United Kingdom in this annual event that endeavours to unite youths from all over Europe to debate and discuss the pressing issues of today’s society.

Civil society groups wishing to know more about how the European Parliament works are invited to take up the offer of a small allowance to help your group travel to Brussels or Strasbourg, seats of the European Parliament.

The Regional Library in Pardubice, the Department of Regional and Cultural services in cooperation with the information center of the EU Europe Direct Pardubice invite you to participate in the European literary contest on the occasion of the 'European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion 2010'. The topic of 2010 annual: 'One For All, All For One' The age of participants can be from 9 to 19 years of age and the DEADLINE for sending the works (only through e-mails) is MARCH, 1st. See further details in the full article please.

The European Parliament has designed an online game to highlight the role of the EP in the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Copenhagen, Denmark, between 7 December and 18 December 2009. Fill in the quiz and get your green or less green Chrismas present! A little surprise: at some stage there is a 'special guest'!!!

To mark the European Day of People with Disabilities, the European Commission organises a policy conference in the first week of December each year, in close cooperation with the European Disability Forum (EDF). This year's Conference will take place in Brussels on 3 and 4 December and it will deal with "Creating conditions for independent living". The Conference will contribute to a better understanding of issues related to independent living, in particular economic autonomy, community services and assistive technologies.

At the November plenary session in Strasbourg the European Parliament welcomed a group of 36 sixth-formers from the East Dunbartonshire and Glasgow area as part of a visit linked to an EP-funded project under the auspices of Gerry Toner from Heriot-Watt University. The pupils were given the opportunity to meet (and indeed put questions to) four of the Scottish MEPs, namely, Catherine Stihler, David Martin, Struan Stevenson and George Lyon, they were also able to follow a debate and tune into Question Time to the Council. They thoroughly enjoyed this experience.

This year's European Parliament LUX Film Prize has been won by the film "Welcome" by the French director Philippe Lioret. This film received the largest number of votes from MEPs. The film is set in Calais, France, and shows a swimming instructor who chooses to help out a young Kurdish refugee seeking to swim across the English Channel to join his girlfriend who has already emigrated to Britain along with her family. This year's LUX Prize, worth about €87,000, will finance the subtitling of the winning film in all the 23 European Union's official languages, including the adaptation of the original version for visually- or hearing-impaired people, and, for each EU member state, the production of a 35-mm print or a contribution to the DVD release. In this way Parliament aims to help break down language barriers that too often hinder the circulation of films throughout Europe. It also contributes to raise societal issues which are at the very heart of the European public debate − in the case of Welcome, immigration and fundamental freedoms

1 December 2009 the official launch of Electric December will take place in Bristol. 

 

A celebration of creativity, connectivity, and cultural exchange, Electric December is Watershed’s annual online event that showcases 24 fantastic films made by young people from across Europe.

 

The 2009 edition of this event is part of the project Young Voices Across Europe (YVAC), which is supported by European Commission through  the Youth in Action programme. YVAC enabled 20 young people in Vilnius (Lithuania) and Bristol (UK) to collaborate, curate and produce this year’s online event.

EUCLID (European & International Information Services for arts & culture) provides a range of European & international information, research & consultancy services.

EUCLID has been appointed by the UK Department for Media, Culture & Sport and the European Commission as the official UK Cultural Contact Point, in particular to promote the EU’s funding programmes for culture.

Working together to bring Europe closer to its citizens: Van den Brande meets EP President Buzek

Luc Van den Brande, President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), met yesterday with Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament, to discuss the cooperation between their institutions at the beginning of the EP's new legislature. Van den Brande used the opportunity to highlight the two EU bodies' key role in connecting Europe with its citizens, and emphasised the CoR's readiness to strengthen the links between Europe's regional and local representatives and the Members of the European Parliament.

 

The recently published book 'Building Parliament: 50 years of European Parliament History 1958–2008' was produced by the European University Institute, Florence, under the direction of Yves Mény, for the European Parliament.

The Hansard Society's Citizenship Education Programme is facilitating mock elections in schools throughout the UK to coincide with the European elections on 4th June. The election provides a perfect opportunity for schools to explore issues surrounding democracy and justice at a European level.

The latest issue of the newsletter of the Association for the Study of Sport and the European Union (Sport&EU) has been published.

You can download it here http://www.sportandeu.com/newsletter/7.pdf

This issue of the Sport&EU Newsletter is special for several reasons.

First, because it marks the beginning of a new project for Sport&EU. This is the last issue of the Newsletter in this current format. October 2009 will see the new development of the Newsletter under a different title: 'Sport&EU Review'.

Second, in the newsletter you will find information on the call for papers for the Sport&EU 4th annual conference, scheduled for 22-23 June 2009 in Stirling (Scotland). 

The UK national winner of the Charlemagne Youth Prize for 2009 is the Talita Kum project, entered by Lewis Ross from Inverness. The other team members are Phi Macdonald, Mhairi McGowan, Kayleigh Berg, Daniel McWilliams, Fraser Kane and Sarah-Jane Savage - all from Millburn Academy.

If ever you visit the UK Office of the European Parliament, you can ask to see the published reports, photographic journals, diaries and from later this year for the first time, DVDs produced by the winners of the Peter Kirk Travel Scholarship. And if you do spend an hour or so browsing these records, you will find something unique and worthy of what the fund set out to do in memory of Peter Kirk.

For the city of Liverpool, 2008 is its European Capital of Culture Year, for the European Union it is its year of Intercultural Dialogue and for Liverpool Hope University it is its World Youth Congress year.

In its promotional material UACES styles itself the dynamic interdisciplinary association devoted to European Studies and highlights its role in exchanging ideas on Europe. This is exactly what it is and does.

Leading up to the forthcoming June 22 Summit and during the period of reflection on the Constitutional Treaty, an ambitious series of Consultations across all 27 Member States took place.

Who says no one is talking or thinking about Europe? The period of reflection which began following the NO votes to the Constitutional Treaty in France and the Netherlands in 2004 did seem at first to be generating very little. In fact it is fair to say people scoffed at the whole idea, writing it off cynically as playing for time or kicking things into the long grass.

Cecilia and Nadine are both students of European Studies at King's. Cecilia was born in Italy and has lived in France, the UK and Germany and speaks Italian, French, German and English. Nadine admits her story is a little less cosmopolitan and she has a thoroughly British background.